Author: Sue Monk KiddPublisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ISBN: 0142001740
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Amazon.com
In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily's story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd's debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic. --Regina Marler
Product Description
Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
Review
The Secret Life of Bees will sting your heart right from the first page. I fell in love with the the main character, Lily, immediately. Lily is a 14-year old girl growing up on a peach farm with a cold & abusive father, T-Ray. When a mishap occurs over the newly enacted Civil Rights Movement, Lily and her black caretaker, Rosaleen, flee from town.By a series of events that can be nothing short of divine intervention, little white Lily, and big, black Rosaleen end up in the charming South Carolina home of three sisters, May, June & August. While Rosaleen bonds with May in the kitchen cooking good old-southern cooking, Lily works with August as a beekeeper's apprentice. Each chapter of The Secret Life of Bees begins with a charming "life of a bee" fact that relates to the chapter that follows. As the story unwinds, secrets of a painful past are revealed, but simultaneously a new and happy life is created. You will experience some painful endings as well as some happy and hopeful beginnings.
The Secret Life of Bee's is about facing our pasts, accepting them and finding the "mother in ourselves" to move ahead with strength & love. It's about friendships that aren't bound by color or society, and ultimately about love. This novel, by Sue Monk Kidd now holds a special place in my heart as one of my all time favorite reads.
บทความ
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น